She had not moved, no, not an inch in the long hours which
had passed since I left her. She had not even stirred the hand
from which, at her request, I had myself drawn her engagement
ring. I doubt even if her lids had shut once over her strained and
wide-staring eyes. It was as if she were laid out for her grave--"
"Madam!"
The harsh tone recalled her to herself. She took back the picture
he was holding towards her and was hardly surprised when he said:
"Parents must learn to endure bitterness. I have not been exempt
myself from such. Your child will not die. You have years of
mutual companionship before you, while I have nothing. And now let
us end this interview so painful to both. You have said--"
"No," she broke in with sudden vehemence, all the more startling
from the restraint in which she had--held herself up to this
moment, "I have not said--I have not begun to say what seethes
like a consuming fire in my breast. Judge Ostrander, I do not know
what has estranged you from Oliver. It must be something serious;-
-for you are both good men. But whatever it is, of this I am
certain: you would not wilfully deliver an innocent child like
mine to a wretched fate which a well-directed effort might avert.
I spoke of a miracle--Will you not listen, judge? I am not wild; I
am not unconscious of presumption. I am only in earnest, in deadly
earnest. A miracle is possible. The gulf between these two may yet
be spanned. I see a way--"
What change was this to which she had suddenly become witness? The
face which had not lost all its underlying benignancy even when it
looked its coldest, had now become settled and hard.
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